Iza Duffus Hardy (11 October 1850 – 30 August 1922) was a prolific English novelist and travel writer, associated with the

pre-Raphaelite The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (PRB), later known as the Pre-Raphaelites, was a group of English painters, poets, and art critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Michael Rossetti, ...

artistic community.

Early life

Iza Duffus Hardy was born in Enfield, the daughter of archivist Sir

Thomas Duffus Hardy Sir Thomas Duffus Hardy (22 May 1804 – 15 June 1878) was an English archivist and antiquary, who served as Deputy Keeper of the Public Record Office from 1861 to 1878. Life Hardy was the third son of Major Thomas Bartholomew Price Hardy, fro ...

(1804–1878) and author Mary Anne Hardy ( MacDowell; 1824–1891). She was "educated chiefly at home", by her parents.

Thomas Hardy Thomas Hardy (2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928) was an English novelist and poet. A Literary realism, Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, including the poetry ...

believed her to be a distant relation, referring to her as "my very remote consanguinean" in a personal notebook in 1886.

Career

Hardy was a prolific novelist and short story writer. Books by Hardy include ''Not Easily Jealous'' (1872), ''Between Two Fires'' (1873), ''For the Old Love's Sake'' (1875), ''Glencairn'' (1877), ''Only a Love-Story'' (1877), ''A Broken Faith'' (1878), ''Friend and Lover'' (1880), ''Love, Honour, and Obey'' (1881), ''The Love that He Passed By'' (1884), ''Hearts or Diamonds?'' (1885), ''The Westhorpe Mystery'' (1886), ''The Girl He Did Not Marry'' (1887), ''Love In Idleness'' (1887), ''A New Othello'' (1890), ''A Woman's Loyalty'' (1893), ''In the Springtime of Love'' (1895), ''MacGilleroy's Millions'' (1900), ''The Lesser Evil'' (1901), ''Man, Woman, and Fate'' (1902), ''The Master of Madrono Hills'' (1904), ''A Trap of Fate'' (1906), and ''The Silent Watchers'' (1910). Her shorter works, comprising stories, sketches, and serialized versions of her novels, appeared in '' Tinsley's Magazine,'' ''

London Society ''London Society'' was a Victorian era illustrated monthly periodical, subtitled "an illustrated magazine of light and amusing literature for the hours of relaxation". It was published between 1862 and 1898 by W. Clowes and Sons, London, Engl ...

Belgravia Belgravia () is a district in Central London, covering parts of the areas of the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Belgravia was known as the 'Five Fields' during the Tudor Period, and became a dangerous pla ...

The Gentleman's Magazine ''The Gentleman's Magazine'' was a monthly magazine founded in London, England, by Edward Cave in January 1731. It ran uninterrupted for almost 200 years, until 1907, ceasing publication altogether in 1922. It was the first to use the term ''m ...

'', and ''

The Strand Magazine ''The Strand Magazine'' was a monthly British magazine founded by George Newnes, composed of short fiction and general interest articles. It was published in the United Kingdom from January 1891 to March 1950, running to 711 issues, though the ...

''. Hardy and her mother traveled to the United States several times, touring the South, the West, and Florida, and visiting with prominent Americans including

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (February 27, 1807 – March 24, 1882) was an American poet and educator. His original works include the poems " Paul Revere's Ride", '' The Song of Hiawatha'', and '' Evangeline''. He was the first American to comp ...

and Oliver Wendell Holmes. She wrote about her travels in ''Between Two Oceans'' (1884) and ''Oranges and Alligators'' (1886). Hardy was in the social orbit of the pre-Raphaelite artists.

Ford Madox Brown Ford Madox Brown (16 April 1821 – 6 October 1893) was a British painter of moral and historical subjects, notable for his distinctively graphic and often William Hogarth, Hogarthian version of the Pre-Raphaelite style. Arguably, his mos ...

made a large pastel portrait of Hardy in 1872.

Personal life

Hardy lived in

Maida Vale Maida Vale ( ) is an affluent residential district in North West London, England, north of Paddington, southwest of St John's Wood and south of Kilburn, on Edgware Road. It is part of the City of Westminster and is northwest of Charing C ...

for much of her adult life. She received a government pension after her mother's death, in recognition of her father's career in the

Public Record Office The Public Record Office (abbreviated as PRO, pronounced as three letters and referred to as ''the'' PRO), Chancery Lane in the City of London, was the guardian of the national archives of the United Kingdom from 1838 until 2003, when it was m ...

. She was skilled at needlework and other handcrafts. She was briefly engaged to American poet

Joaquin Miller Cincinnatus Heine Miller ( ; September 8, 1837 – February 17, 1913), better known by his pen name Joaquin Miller ( ), was an American poet, author, and frontiersman. He became known as the "Poet of the Sierras" after the Sierra Nevada, about wh ...

, during his time in London in 1873. She died in a

Paddington Paddington is an area in the City of Westminster, in central London, England. A medieval parish then a metropolitan borough of the County of London, it was integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965. Paddington station, designed b ...

nursing home in 1922, aged 71 years. Ford Madox Brown's 1872 portrait of Hardy is in the collection of Birmingham Museums. Two letters by Hardy to Lucy Madox Brown Rossetti are in the Sheila and Terry Meyers Collection of Swinburneiana at the

College of William & Mary The College of William & Mary (abbreviated as W&M) is a public university, public research university in Williamsburg, Virginia, United States. Founded in 1693 under a royal charter issued by King William III of England, William III and Queen ...

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hardy, Iza Duffus 1850 births 1922 deaths English women novelists People from Maida Vale English travel writers 19th-century English short story writers Writers from the London Borough of Enfield 19th-century English novelists English women short story writers Victorian novelists Victorian women writers Victorian short story writers 20th-century English novelists 20th-century English short story writers Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood artists' models